Behind the Bill with Representative Bob Morgan: Illinois is the First in the Nation to Regulate AI in Mental Health

When Representative Bob Morgan's phone rang in December 2024, he was focused on a different AI problem entirely. For over a year, he'd been working on legislation to regulate how insurance companies use artificial intelligence to approve or deny healthcare claims. But the call from the National Association of Social Workers would redirect his attention to something equally urgent: AI was being used to provide mental health therapy—with no oversight, no licensure requirements, and increasingly alarming consequences.

By August 2025, Illinois would become the first state in the nation and possibly the world to pass comprehensive legislation regulating AI in mental health care.

The Journey to Leadership

Rep. Morgan's path to this legislative milestone began long before AI entered the public consciousness. As a healthcare attorney who cut his teeth implementing the Affordable Care Act in Illinois, he witnessed firsthand how technological innovation intersects with life-and-death healthcare decisions. His career spans roles as general counsel for the Illinois Department of Public Health (where he managed the state's response to the Ebola crisis), architect of Illinois's medical cannabis program, and deputy general counsel for employee benefits.

"I've always been in healthcare," Rep. Morgan reflects in our recent podcast interview. "Every responsibility and job I've had professionally and personally, it's always going back and harking back to this experience in healthcare."

But it was a deeply personal moment that propelled him from healthcare lawyer to state legislator. When President Trump implemented the travel ban during his first term, Rep. Morgan, whose great-grandparents were killed in the Holocaust after immigration borders closed before World War II, felt compelled to act. "That was the specific moment where I realized I wanted to do something about it. I really wanted to see the change and be the change that I wanted to see in the world."

Since 2019, Rep. Morgan has represented Illinois's 58th District and now serves as Assistant Majority Leader and Floor Whip in the House chamber. This leadership position reflects both his policy expertise and his ability to build coalitions around complex issues.

When Innovation Meets Regulation

Rep. Morgan approaches AI regulation with a nuanced perspective that many policymakers lack. He acknowledges the fundamental challenge: "Legislators and regulators and elected officials are always behind on technology regulation. We pass laws over multiple years and technology advances in weeks and months."

Yet he's also clear-eyed about the stakes. "When you start talking medical equipment and just making sure that it's safe and sterilized, we start talking about hospitals and the ways that we regulate who can perform surgeries and who can prescribe these things—that's when I start to pay attention more. Because then you're talking life and death."

The Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act doesn't ban AI in healthcare. Instead, it applies a centuries-old regulatory framework to a 21st-century problem: if you advertise yourself as a licensed mental health professional, you must actually be one.

"This is not a new concept," Rep. Morgan explains. "In fact, it's a very old concept in Illinois, in every state, that the states regulate healthcare professionals. If you want to go have a tooth extracted, we don't let a baker who's not otherwise medically trained start doing dental extraction."

What the Law Does (and Doesn't Do)

The legislation is deliberately narrow, targeting companies that design entire systems and apps to advertise and market themselves as licensed mental health professionals when they're not. It does not restrict licensed healthcare professionals from using AI to improve their practice—whether for note-taking, medical research, transcription, or clinical decision support.

"I trust licensed healthcare professionals," Rep. Morgan states. "You've gone through training and licensure and education. I trust you to make the decision to use technology in a way that's consistent with your license."

The critical distinction: there must always be a licensed person responsible for the care being provided.

The Political Reality

The legislative process moved with unusual urgency. Illinois's legislative session runs January through May, and when Morgan introduced the bill in early 2025, he expected it to take years to pass. Instead, mounting evidence of harm, including stories of young people as young as 12 or 13 receiving dangerous advice from AI chatbots, created momentum.

"In just a few months, the narrative and the urgency really took hold," Morgan recalls. "We would see story after story after story and hear anecdote after anecdote of individuals that were negatively impacted by AI therapists and therapy bots."

Rep. Morgan's role as Assistant Majority Leader and Floor Whip proved crucial in navigating the political dynamics. The opposition came from two camps: broad-based technology companies using AI across various applications (who Rep. Morgan felt approached the issue sincerely) and AI therapy bot startups facing what they viewed as an existential threat. Despite pressure campaigns—including attempts to persuade Governor Pritzker not to sign the bill—Illinois moved forward.

Rep. Morgan credits Pritzker's unique background as both a governor and a tech entrepreneur who founded multiple startups: "One of the things you have to acknowledge is he understands business and startups and tech. He's a pretty avid reader and he is really into this space."

A Model for the Nation

Other states are already looking to Illinois as a template. Legislators from Nevada and elsewhere have reached out to understand what works, what needs improvement, and what should be adapted for their contexts. This state-level innovation becomes even more critical given the federal government's current stance against AI regulation.

"We are as explicit and actual contrast and tensions between the federal and state government as you can get," Rep. Morgan notes, referencing broader policy divergences between Illinois and Washington on issues from reproductive rights to immigration enforcement.

What's Next

Rep. Morgan is candid about the limitations of any single piece of legislation. "I would never say that any bill I've ever passed is the best ever. It has to evolve. We have to learn from these challenges, but I think it was the right choice."

As a general-purpose technology, AI will eventually intersect with every policy area—education, labor, surveillance, law enforcement. The questions will only multiply. But Illinois has established a framework: innovation should continue, but not at the expense of public safety. Technology should augment human expertise, not replace the accountability that comes with professional licensure.

"You have to have a person," Morgan insists. "Whether it's a health insurance claim denial or somebody who is clinically diagnosing and treating somebody. You have to have a person."

The Illinois Approach

What makes Illinois willing to stake out this position when other states hesitate? Morgan points to hard-won lessons from the state's recent history—including a nearly four-year budget impasse that closed schools, eliminated mental health beds, and left healthcare providers unpaid. Illinois has experienced what happens when government abdicates responsibility.

"We provide these opportunities to define your own way and to pursue all these different careers and opportunities and lifestyles that fit you and your needs," Morgan says of his home state. "You can't find that in a lot of states, in fact, fewer and fewer states that allow you to just be yourself."

That philosophy—protecting the ability of residents to make their own choices while establishing guardrails for safety—now extends to how Illinois regulates artificial intelligence.